Because I am a glutton for punishment, I have taken up this challenge. Pity me, folks...

I own...hmm...nothing. Characters, plot...none of it is mine.

"If you reveal your secrets to the wind you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees." ~Kahlil Gibran

An obnoxiously cheerful ringtone dragged Danny out of unconsciousness and into the realm where sleeping people walk into walls—or in Danny's case through the walls—and from that moment on the hero knew it would be a bad day.

He fumbled blindly for his alarm clock, overshot his reach and tumbled out of bed. Danny groaned. He pried his eyes open long enough to find the real source of the ringing—his cell phone buzzing across his bedside table—and then placed his palm against the table's base. Intangibility spread from his hand to the table, and the items on top received a one-way ticket to the ground.

Danny pulled his cell phone out of the heap and placed it against his ear. "Hello?" A second later, he flipped the phone open and repeated into the speaker, "Hello?"

"Danny!"

"Wha…?" Danny blinked once…twice. "Tuck?"

"Man, you sound out of it. How long were you up last night?"

A squiggly number flashed across Danny's inner eye, and the boy squinted at it, trying to make sense of the image. "Th…Three? Or maybe…five?"

"An all-nighter, huh? Well, you better pull it together."

Danny laid his cheek against his hardwood floor, his eyes sliding closed. "Hnm…?"

"Turn on your TV and you'll see why."

Danny heaved a long-suffering sigh and then hoisted himself onto his knees. He searched the room through heavy-lidded eyes, absently listing off what he saw. "Desk, computer, chair, bed…where's the TV again?"

"On the opposite side of your bed…It's going to be one of those days, huh, Danny?"

If Danny had been fully awake, he might have taken offence at Tucker's amused tone. As it was he could only mumble something unintelligible. He rested his chin on his bed and stared at the blank screen of his TV, a seemingly infinite distance away from him. "Use your techy magic to turn on the television for me, Tuck."

"…I'm taking that as a resounding yes."

"Please? I won't tell on you."

"Stop being lazy and turn it on yourself."

But that meant getting up…Danny whimpered low in his throat. He stared at the black TV screen a while longer, pouting sleepily. He turned himself intangible and crawled through his bed. Ghost powers. Got to love them. Once on the opposite side, he dropped his intangibility, stretched out his leg, using his toe to press TV's power button. Yawning, he leaned his back against the bed as his television flickered on, showing Lance Thunder giving his weather report.

"You woke me up to tell me it will be sunny today?" he questioned, a small note of disbelief in his tired voice.

"It's what's coming up next."

"Oh." Danny leaned his head back against the mattress, his eyes sliding closed. "Wake me when it starts then…"

"Danny."

"Huh?"

"It's starting."

"…Oh." Danny forced his eyes open and stared at the TV as Tiffany Snow came on the air. His eyes blurred, the world losing its focus as sleep called to the hero.

"…a startling secret about our ghostly protector, Danny Phantom."

Danny blinked the world back into focus.

"Last night—or more accurately, early this morning—our reporters captured this exchange between Danny Phantom and one of his ghostly enemies…"

Tiffany Snow's face faded from view as another footage took over the screen. At first, all Danny saw was a dark street, lit by interspersed street lamps and the occasional ectoblast. Then two blurs flashed across the screen, and the cameraman turned his camera to follow them. Danny Phantom came on screen, standing over a fallen butler.

"…worst timing ever," screen-Danny was saying. "Can't we limit these 'social visits' to weekends or something? I have a test tomorrow!"

Two black hands clamped around screen-Danny's ankles. Spectra in shade form shot out from beneath the ground, spun screen-Danny around by his ankles and then released him. The ghost boy's startled scream ended as he collided with a few trash cans. The containers fell on screen-Danny, spilling half their contents over him.

"Oh, look, Bertand," Spectra cooed. "I just took out the trash. Perhaps the filth will take the hint and stay where it belongs."

Screen-Danny grimaced as a banana peel slid down his face. He leaped into the air, flashing through intangibility and allowing all the junk to fall off him. "Maybe you should take the hint and stay where you belong," he spat. He shot an ectoblast at Spectra, an attack she easily dodged.

"But that wouldn't be fair to you. Why, without us, where would you be?" Spectra swept her arm out, gesturing to the town. "Do you honestly think you would be welcome here without us? You're nothing but a fad! They'll forget all about you and move onto the next strange thing to come into this boring little town. Without us, you would be just a nuisance to this town."

"You're the nuisance here!" screen-Danny shouted, his voice strained. "If it weren't for you guys causing trouble, I could live a normal life!"

Spectra threw back her head and laughed. "You? Normal? Ha! You're hated in the Ghost Zone, hidden in the Human World. You're not a ghost, you're not a human. You're a freak that nobody wants! The only life you could ever live is one spent as a lab rat!"

"That's not true!"

"Oh, isn't it?" Spectra flashed him a cruel, devil's smile. "The government, that hunter girl, why your own parents must dream of tearing apart an anomaly like you! If this town knew what you truly were, they'd give you up in a heartbeat!" Her smile and her eyes shrank, her voice as sharp as a knife laced with poison. "And you know it, too. That's why, even after two years, you're parents still don't know what you truly are. What they created! You're afraid their love of science is stronger than their love for you. You know they would turn against you. You know that your own pathetic human government would no longer see you as a citizen to protect, but as a freak to be studied. You know that all your so-called 'Phans' would turn their backs on you. You know that once your precious human world realizes Danny Phantom is nothing more than a freak in sheep's clothing…" She smirked. "Well, I'm sure you know what would happen then…"

Danny and screen-Danny clenched their fists, Spectra's words tearing through them both like a lance to the heart. Screen-Danny opened his mouth to respond—with what even Danny didn't know as he had been left speechless after Spectra's trap—but was suddenly tackled from behind by Bertrand's panther form. He and the panther landed not far from the cameraman's position. A beeped-out swear filtered through the speakers before the screen became shaky as the cameraman ran away.

Tiffany Snow returned, her bright smile at odds with the darker material just shown. "A strange exchange indeed. And to help us puzzle out the secrets hidden within, we have asked government agents K and O, and ghost whisperer Baba Zida to join us." The camera zoomed out as Tiffany turned to the mentioned guests. "Any thoughts on the matter?"

"That boy is a ghost," Baba Zida said. Her shrill voice carried a small accent and she still wore the same clothes she had worn that first time Danny had seen her at the carnival.

"Ah…" Tiffany said slowly. "Yes…"

"And yet, he is not a ghost," the old gypsy continued. "He is something…" She paused for dramatic effect. "…in-between…"

"Impossible," Agent O said.

"Completely impossible," Agent K agreed.

"The very notion is absurd."

"What do you mean by…'in-between'?" Tiffany asked.

"Weren't you listening to that creepy shade monster?" Baba Zida questioned. "The boy is neither a ghost nor a human. He is…in-between…"

"You mean he's not dead or alive?"

Agent K scoffed. "Absurd."

Tiffany leaned closer to Baba Zida. "Is it even possible to be both?"

"I have seen stranger things in my time. It's not completely inconceivable for a ghost to reproduce with a human, or for the Spirits to step in and preserve a life beyond death…I lean more to the latter, as the boy has parents who do not know he is dead—or half dead, as the case may be."

"Impossible."

"Ridiculous."

"Why do you say that?" Tiffany asked the two agents.

Agent O sniffed. "Every well-educated person knows you cannot be both dead and alive. It's impossible."

"And so is for a human to have ghost powers," Agent K added. "Blood and ectoplasm are polar opposites and destroy each other on contact. To mix the two would be impossible."

Tiffany leaned a little closer to them. "Oh? Has your agency investigated the matter?"

"That's classified."

"You seem to know this topic very well," Tiffany pressed.

"That's classified."

"The boy mentioned a test," Baba Zida said, regaining Tiffany's attention. "Which means he must attend school."

Tiffany's eyes widened. "You mean Danny Phantom goes to Casper High?"

"I would bet my left shoe he does. And since he has remained undiscovered so far, he must have some way to conceal his identity. He must be adept at blending in with other humans."

Tiffany placed a finger on her chin, frowning softly in an attractive manner. "And he hides from us because he thinks we would turn against him…use him as a lab rat…" Here she threw a glance at the Guys in White agents. "You wouldn't do that to our town hero, would you?"

"Classified."

Tiffany sighed. "Worth a shot…" She looked back at the camera, smiling. "Well, there you have it! Danny Phantom, a hero forced to hide who he truly is. We ask that if any of you find out more about the Ghost Boy to please contact us…and also to treat our hero with the respect he deserves. And if you're watching this, Mr. Phantom…" Her smile softened. "Please know that there are still people who love you no matter what you are."

The smile became strained as she straightened in her seat. "And now we go to Harriet Chin for the latest in sports…"

A few seconds of silence later, Tucker's tentative voice said, "Danny? Danny, are you okay, man?"

Danny swallowed, staring at the television, his eyes three times their normal size. "I'm awake, Tuck…"

Hmm, so how is that? ...Too short? I know. But this is going to be a short story. If i didn't break up the chapters, it'd just be three-four very long chapters...Plus I'm a sadist XD I wanted to torture you guys, muhahaha! Expect cliffhangers... ;)

Thanks for reading ^-^ Reviews would be appreciated. (and don't mention my other stories. I'm working on them...)